The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard - Elmore Leonard [244]
The cowboy, Macon, said, “Jesus Christ, you saying the Rough Riders didn’t know what they were doing?” Like this was something impossible to believe.
“They mighta had an idea what they was doing,” Catlett said, “only thing it wasn’t what they shoulda been doing.” He said, “You understand the difference?” And thought, What’re you explaining it to him for? The boy giving him that mean look again, ready to defend the Rough Riders. All right, he was so proud of Teddy’s people, why hadn’t he been over there with them?
“Look,” Catlett said, using a quiet tone now, “the way it was, the dons had sharpshooters in these trees, a thicket of mangoes and palm trees growing wild you couldn’t see into. You understand? Had men hidden in there were expert with the rifle, these Mausers they used with smokeless powder. Teddy’s people come along a ridge was all covered with these trees and run into the dons, see, the dons letting some of the Rough Riders pass and then closing on ’em. So, yeah, it was an ambush in a way.” Catlett paused. “We was down on the road, once we caught up, moving in the same direction.” He paused again, remembering something the cowboy said that bothered him. “There’s nothing wrong with an ambush—like say you think it ain’t fair ? If you can set it up and keep your people behind cover, do it. There was a captain with the Rough Riders said he believed an officer should never take cover, should stand out there and be an example to his men. The captain said, ‘There ain’t a Spanish bullet made that can kill me.’ Stepped out in the open and got shot in the head.”
A couple of cowboys looking like the two who were mounted had come out of the Chinaman’s picking their teeth and now stood by to see what was going on. Some people who had come out of the hotel were standing along the steps.
Catlett took all this in as he paused again, getting the words straight in his mind to tell how they left the road, some companies of the Tenth and the First, all regular Army, went up the slope laying down fire and run off the dons before the Rough Riders got cut to pieces, the Rough Riders volunteers and not experienced in all kind of situations—the reason they didn’t know shit about advancing through hostile country or, get right down to it, what they were doing in Cuba, these people that come looking for glory and got served sharpshooters with Mausers and mosquitoes carrying yellow fever. Tell these cowboys the true story. General Wheeler, “Fightin’ Joe” from the Confederate side in the Civil War now thirty-three years later an old man with a white beard; sees the Spanish pulling back at Las Guásimas and says, “Boys, we got the Yankees on the run.” Man like that directing a battle….
Tell the whole story if you gonna tell it, go back to sitting in the hold of the ship in Port Tampa a month, not allowed to go ashore for fear of causing incidents with white people who didn’t want the men of the Tenth coming in their stores and cafés, running off their customers. Tell them—so we land in Cuba at a place called Daiquirí… saying in his mind then, Listen to me now. Was the Tenth at Daiquirí, the Ninth at Siboney. Experienced cavalry regiments that come off frontier station after thirty years dealing with hostile renegades, cutthroat horse thieves, reservation jumpers, land in Cuba and they put us to work unloading the ships while Teddy’s people march off to meet the enemy and win some medals, yeah, and would’ve been wiped out at El Caney and on San Juan Hill if the colored boys hadn’t come along and saved Colonel Teddy’s ass and all his Rough Rider asses, showed them how to go up a hill and take a blockhouse. Saved them so the Rough Riders could become America’s heroes.
All this in Bo Catlett’s head and the banners welcoming Capt. Early hanging over him.
One of the cowboys from the Chinaman’s must’ve asked what was going on, because now the smart-aleck one brought his claybank around